Panama, 22/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - Representatives of nine Latin American banana exporting countries, meeting in Panama on Friday, rejected the new Community strategy aimed at settling the dispute over bananas. The representatives of Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela said that they were together to make a counter-proposal: the formula proposed by the EU - "first come first served" - does not, they say, assure fair competition (See EUROPE of 26 July, pages 7 and 8, for talks between Commissioners Fischler and Lamy and Sir James Mitchell, Chair of the Caribbean Common Market).